Big Sky Conference

* EASTERN WASHINGTON (4-7, 0-1) at CS NORTHRIDGE (5-6, 1-0) Time--7. Northridge players said they felt a new level of intensity playing the school's first game in a legitimate Division I conference Thursday night. Northridge must finish in the top six in the Big Sky to make the conference tournament, the winner of which goes to the NCAA tournament. Eastern Washington, which lost its conference opener, 79-62, at Northern Arizona, is struggling.

Hometown Gonzaga probably will be waiting in the second round. And Pacific 10 Conference champion Stanford almost certainly will advance to the Spokane Regional final. However, UCLA cannot concern itself with either potential opponent unless it gets past Montana in the first round of the NCAA women's basketball tournament. The third-seeded Bruins (27-4) play 14th-seeded Montana (18-14) on Saturday at Spokane, Wash. Bruins Coach Nikki Caldwell has had a few days to study tape of Montana, which won the Big Sky Conference tournament.

Bobby Braswell, who will lead the Cal State Northridge basketball team against Kansas in the NCAA tournament Friday, has been selected Big Sky Conference coach of the year. Braswell led the Matadors (22-9) to their first Big Sky Conference title and first NCAA tournament in his fifth season. Northridge's 22 victories are the team's most since 1977-78. It is the second consecutive year Northridge won at least 20 games. Braswell's record at Northridge is 85-62.

No. 3 UCLA (27-4) vs. No. 14 Montana (18-14) SATURDAY, 3:30 P.M., AT SPOKANE, WASH. TV: ESPN2 How they got here: UCLA finished second in the Pacific 10 Conference behind Stanford, which defeated the Bruins three times, including in the conference tournament championship game; Montana earned an automatic bid after winning the Big Sky Conference tournament. Last 10 games: UCLA, 8-2; Montana, 7-3. Best wins/worst losses: UCLA defeated Notre Dame, 86-83, in double overtime at South Bend, Ind., but lost to Stanford three times, including a 64-55 defeat in the Pac-10 tournament championship game Saturday after leading by nine points at halftime.

The Big Sky Conference decided Wednesday to change its post-season basketball tournament, eliminating the bottom three teams and seeding the top two teams into the semi-finals. All teams were eligible for the tournament before, although Eastern Washington was disqualified in its first year of Big Sky membership because of NCAA disciplinary action. The changes were approved at a meeting here of league presidents, faculty representatives and athletic directors.

Gut-check time comes early this season for Cal State Northridge, a football team desperate to shed its collective roll around the middle. Perhaps a reality check, too. Northridge resumes its swan song season in the Big Sky Conference today at North Campus Stadium against Idaho State, which already has provided the Matadors with a cold slap in the face.

Four coaches in four seasons. An interim coach hired at the 11th hour. Talk of expulsion from the Big Sky Conference and rumors of the program's demise. Small wonder Cal State Northridge is tabbed to finish eighth this season in the Big Sky coaches' preseason poll. Northridge Coach Jeff Kearin, a Matador assistant the last four seasons, wonders how his counterparts could so quickly forget.

Winning on the road has placed Cal State Northridge in the driver's seat in the Big Sky Conference race. The Matadors did it again Saturday night, completing their second two-game sweep away from home this season with a 74-65 victory over Montana before 4,065 at Adams Center. Northridge (13-8, 6-2 in the Big Sky), which won at Montana State, 72-65, Thursday night, went 2-0 in Montana for the first time since joining the Big Sky in 1996 and is 4-1 in conference road games.

Three seasons playing in the Big Sky Conference and Cal State Northridge has only a second-place finish to yodel about. Meanwhile, Eastern Washington has been to the mountain top. Mike Kramer, in fact, has climbed to the summit of several. Kramer, sixth-year coach of the Eagles, has scaled virtually every major peak of the Pacific Northwest, including Mt. Rainier, Mt. Hood, Mt. Adams, Granite Peak and Mt. St. Helens.

It didn't take long for Jim Fenwick, Cal State Northridge's first-year football coach, to size up the situation. After spending two days here at the Big Sky Conference summer kickoff convention that ended Tuesday, Fenwick came away somewhat dejected and frustrated. "I feel we are not being taken very seriously," Fenwick said. "We should be able to get the same kind of respect as those other teams."

David Patten faced some obstacles on his way to the NCAA tournament. The Placentia El Dorado High graduate started out at Pepperdine, where he played basketball and volleyball, then transferred to Santa Ana College, where he redshirted, then headed off to Ogden, Utah, and Weber State -- only to lose his mother, who passed away three days before the basketball team started practice in October 2004. For two years, he played for a mostly struggling program, but those days surely seem long ago now.

Tuesday vs. Northern Arizona (4-2), 7:30 p.m. -- The Lumberjacks, members of the Big Sky Conference, have won three in a row. Coach Mike Adras, in his fourth season since taking over from Ben Howland, posted his 50th victory when Northern Arizona beat St. Peter's on Nov. 23. The Lumberjacks lost to Arizona, 101-66, on Nov. 27. -- Steve Henson

The Big Sky Conference didn't exactly stick it to four Sacramento State defensive linemen who greased their jerseys for a game. Brad Osterhout, Bilal Watkins, Ben Fox and Eric Broden were reprimanded Friday, but can play against Weber State today. "The Big Sky was very concerned that coaches may have been involved," conference Commissioner Doug Fullerton said. "Had the coaches been involved, we would have considered this a more serious ethical problem.

Players from Sacramento State greased their jerseys with nonstick cooking spray on the sidelines during their loss at top-ranked Montana last weekend, the Big Sky Conference said Thursday at Helena, Mont. The league and Sacramento State are trying to figure out how many players applied PAM -- a cooking spray -- to their uniforms and if the coaches knew about it.

Tournament MVP Stacey Dales scored 25 points to help fourth-ranked Oklahoma defeat No. 7 Baylor, 84-69, Saturday in the Big 12 Conference tournament final at Kansas City, Mo., giving the Sooners their first conference tournament title. The win all but seals a No. 1 seeding in the NCAA tournament for the Sooners, who won by an average of 22 points in three Big 12 tournament games. "There's no way we're not a No. 1 now," Oklahoma Coach Sherri Coale said. "This is pretty special what we just did.

Katie Maxwell, a Ventura Buena High graduate and senior goalkeeper at Northern Arizona University, was selected Big Sky Conference soccer player of the week for Oct. 8. Maxwell recorded her third shutout of the season and 10th of her career in a 1-0 upset of Arizona State.

The worst fears of Nancy Ma and the Cal State Northridge women's volleyball team have materialized. Ma, a 6-foot-1 junior outside hitter and team leader, is out for the season because of torn ligaments and torn cartilage in her right knee. A team spokesperson said surgery is needed to repair the damage but Ma has not decided what to do. "She's the key to us winning," Coach Lian Lu said. "She's awesome. She's so smart and skilled. We lose a big leader."

Cal State Northridge, which will compete as an independent this season, will open its season tonight against former Big Sky Conference rival Northern Arizona. The Division I-AA Matadors left the Big Sky when the athletic program joined the Big West Conference. The Big West does not field a football conference. Northridge had competed in a conference every year since 1964. Northridge will play eight of 11 games on the road, beginning tonight at Walkup Skydome in Flagstaff.

Cal State Northridge is an independent in football for the first time since 1964, yet the Matadors' goals differ little from last season, when they were a member of the Big Sky Conference. "You always like to have a conference championship to play for," third-year Coach Jeff Kearin said. "But our goals have always been the same, win all of our games against [NCAA] Division I-AA opponents and we'll get one of the [eight] at-large bids [for the 16-team] playoffs."